Some VERY heated discussions on the Japanese forums the night before last. They were discussing how soft the Macro shots were and upon viewing some, I am prone to agree with them. The shots I saw were simple and showed a very shallow DOF. Even with this effect in place, there was a considerable softness to the images, even the areas meant to be sharp. But what I am seeing in these new images is not a natural blur to the background. .Below is a crop from one of the official Canon images from the G1X Mk2. It shows an artificially blurred background and you can see how the blur continues across the shoulder of the model. The image processor software produced a halo or smudge of skin tone across the contrasting area of the shoulder and it has a softening effect on the overall portrait. It looks like the effect used with the Macro shots below..

G1X-Mk2 - defocussed background effect..Looking at the samples shown on this thread (especially the Flower Macros), they are REALLY soft. Take a look a the yellow flower first... then the Pink one. They both look like they have Vaseline on the lens. Sure, DOF is playing a part but since we know the camera has a software element to deliberately blur the backgrounds, I'm wondering if it is being applied here in Macro by default.

G1X-MkII / F2.2 / 1/2,000 / +0.7EV / ISO100 / 12.5mm

G!X-MkII / F2 / 1/500 / +1.3EV / ISO100 / 12.5mmThe colors and composition are great. But these are pretty awful. It REALLY looks like what they used to call the "cheesecake cloth" effect: When actresses didn't want the camera to show their wrinkles or flawed skin between the 1920s to the 1970s, they would drape a soft mesh cloth (designed to keep flies off the cheesecake) over the lens to soften the image. That's exactly what these two images look like. Viewing the Pink flower at 100% is something of a frightening experience..Now that I've had a closer look at the images, I feel pretty confident in saying that they exhibit no bokeh at all, just an out of focus background that appears to be over-softened. Deliberately. When I look at my own Macro shots (closeup shots) taken with my G1X Mk1, the one thing I notice is that there's a true bokeh in the background. Scroll up the the new G1X MkII shots and the difference in the background becomes much more apparent. How do we know that these images are "faked" in-camera instead of portraying a real background softness? Well, the blur continues across the areas that are supposed to be in focus. It's rather pronounced. Shots like the fish etc did not appear to have been taken in "Macro Mode"..The ONE major thing that had me looking seriously at the G1X Mk II is the addition of a built-in Macro. A good Macro ability is essential for me if I am to purchase this camera and hang up the old one. Right now it's looking less likely at this stage. A lot less likely..[images below from the original G1X Mk1 + Closeup Filters]